Due to circumstances beyond my control (spending all day at a car dealership and all evening discussing the vehicle sitting in front of our house) – my original 3rd Edition Freaky Friday post will be published next week!

This week’s edition looks like this –

The older child is my grandfather, Glen R. Johnson. The younger child – unknown. As far as I know – no one knows who this is. My grandfather didn’t have a younger brother. He his 12 years older than his sister, Eva, and I don’t think my grandfather appears to be of the correct age. This isn’t a very good scan of the photo but the younger child is dressed like a boy so I don’t think it was a girl. My thought it could be a cousin or even a friend. Did people generally include non-family members in photos in the early 1900’s?

My Grandad and this unknown child are dressed like “men”. They appeared very uncomfortable in these photos – wearing clothes that made them look “old” instead of children.

I tend to think this photo and another one taken at the same time of the same unknown child with Grandad – are rather odd.

This morning I received an invitation to join the “Getting to Know You Challenge for Bloggers” in order for those of us in the Genea-Bloggers group to glean more information on each other’s blogs. There is also the upcoming Carnival of Genealogy 55th Edition – Show and Tell, 5th Edition Smile for the Camera – Crowning Glory, Blog Action Day on October 15th – Poverty, the on-going Genea-Blogger Group Games on Facebook, and my own Freaky Friday challenge. The meme’s “Stores of Yesteryear” and “The Soundtracks of my Salad Days” have already been written.

And I’m partially done with writing a biography on one of my ancestors for the Group Games. Looks like some great challenges coming up which give me a chance to flex my writing muscles (as opposed to those leg or arm muscles being used by the athletes at the Olympics!) in order to publish some wonderful posts.

Yesterday I noticed that footnoteMaven wrote an article on Using Family Photographs on Shades of the Departed on how to create a MOO greeting card. This looks like something (as a digital scrapbook artist) I would like to do – which means one more thing to add to my list!

I am updating the list of ideas for the “Freaky Friday” challenge as I thought of something that truly is “Freaky” but didn’t fall within any of the categories I’d listed. And since I started this challenge, I get to change the rules! So here is the update.

Number 5: Submit information on actual events or photo or two that screams “Freaky” or “Friday” (or both!) and explain.

When I was about nine years old, a friend of my grandparents passed away. Since my parents and I also knew the lady, it was expected that we attend the visitation. As Mom was explaining exactly what I would see, I turned and gave her a quizzical look. When she finished speaking, I replied, “But I’ve been to a funeral before.” She said no, I’d never been to a funeral or inside a funeral home or been to a viewing before. Yes I had, I argued. The lady in the pink dress. Mom just shook her head but didn’t say much after that.

One of my earliest memories was of a small, white funeral home out in the country somewhere. To this day I can still recall the flowers that grew on the trellis outside. I can see the men in their white shirts and narrow black ties. They had short hair and were standing outside in the sunshine. The coffin was white but I was too little to see the lady inside. Someone put a step stool down so I could stand on it. As I peered inside at the lady, I remember she had on a pink dress and she had a head covering on – sort of like a hair net but it was opaque. I distinctly remember thinking that it was my aunt.

My Aunt Genevieve died three years before I was born of inoperable brain tumors so I had never met her – let alone gone to her funeral.

Many years later when I was back in the Dayton area for a vacation, I was at my brother’s house, and we were talking about how we’d sometimes have deja vu. He asked me if I’d ever had a dream (or vision) of a lady dressed in pink dress lying in a coffin. I almost fell off the couch. He went on to tell me his own version. He remembered that she had on a pink nightgown and part of it wasn’t covering her stomach. There were lots of black stitches running up and down her abdomen. He always called her the “watermelon” woman because the stitches reminded him of watermelon seeds. Our desciptions of the funeral home were also very similar. Then he told me that our sister had mentioned something close to what we were describing. I’ve never asked her if that’s true.

All three of us also have a very heightened sense of deja vu. My sister used to argue with my mom that she’d been somewhere before upon the first time she’d enter a house. Mom finally gave up trying to argue with the unknown.

Needless to say, my first actual time at a funeral home and being in the presence of someone who had died, did not bother me as it might for a small child. I tend to think it’s because I had truly believed I’d already been through that first experience and the fear of the unknown was over.

This picture (look at the door) reminds me of the homes in the “shire” in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Large doorknob in the center of the door! This picture was taken in California during the trip I took with my parents in the mid-60s. I don’t remember if this was at Disneyland or Universal Studios. The original photo is a slide that I scanned. My dad (I believe) was the photographer.

Why it pertains to “genealogy”: it is part of the story of my travels as a child that I can pass on to my children and grandchildren. That they may know that I was able to see a vast majority of the United States in my youth, my experiences, the things I saw, and how I remembered them.

Why I chose this picture? Kind of freaky – doorknob in the center of the door? Weird!

As I prepare for the Genea-Blogger Group Games, I decided that I would start my own “prompt” or “challenge”. If anyone wants to play after today – that would be great but not required.

I have participated in “Wordless Wednesday” (albeit only once – this week), have read “Twice Told Tuesday” postings on Shades of the Departed, as well as have submitted entries for Smile for the Camera (also on “Shades”) and Carnival of Genealogy, hosted by Jasia on Creative Gene. So . . . I wondered . . . what about “Freaky Friday”? Remember the movies? The original with Jodi Foster, then there was a re-make, then the latest one a few years ago with Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis? The premise revolves around a mother and daughter who end up switching bodies and learning how to adapt?

“Freaky Friday” here in the Genealogy blogosphere would require some thought. Some ideas:

1. Which Ancestor would you want to switch places with for one day? Why? What do you hope to learn? What challenges would you face? What challenges would your ancestor face living as you?

2. Pick another genealogist (does not have to be a professional) you would switch places with for one day. Why did you pick that person?

3. Pick a different decade or century you would choose to live in for one day. Explain why and what you learned (you’ll need to do some homeworkabout history).

4. Pick one country of your ancestors that you would live in for one day – during their lifetime. Explain why and what you learned. (again – homework on history and geography)

5. Submit a photo or two that screams “Freaky” or “Friday” (or both!) and explain.

Yes, I know we are all going to be really busy in the next couple weeks working on our competition in the “Games”, but there are many others out there who are cheering us on and for one reason or another not able to participate. I wanted to give those who are not participating as well as those who are, to have a fresh prompt (one of the challenges is “Write! Write! Write!”).

I will be posting my “Freaky Friday” soon. If you rise to the challenge – today or next week – let me know so I can give a Shout Out to your blog. If you are on the Genea-Blogger Group at Facebook, post a message so the group can check it out!

Thanks to all who participate – or even just stop by to read my entry for each week’s “Freaky Friday”!